MIDDLE EAST - Hezbollah MP Walid Sakariya told Lebanese television this week that the nuclear weapon Iran is allegedly developing is intended to annihilate Israel. “This nuclear weapon is intended to create a balance of terror with Israel, to finish off the Zionist enterprise, and to end all Israeli aggression against the Arab nation,” Sakariya said. In a segment recorded and translated by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), Sakariya, also a retired general, told his interviewer on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV Tuesday that should Iran acquire a nuclear weapon it would serve Syrian as well as Iranian interests, namely the eradication of the Jewish state. “The entire equation in the Middle East will change,” he asserted. Iranian officials typically assert that their controversial nuclear program is meant solely for peaceful purposes.

USA - Tropical Storm Isaac bore down on Haiti's southern peninsula early today, leading to three deaths and dumping torrential rain on the poor nation still trying to recover from the terrible 2010 earthquake. Officials organized shelters and urged vacationers to leave the Florida Keys as Isaac approached on Saturday while Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency to make sure local and state agencies would be ready. Meanwhile energy operators in the Gulf of Mexico were shutting down offshore oil and gas rigs ahead of Isaac. The storm could spur short-term shut-downs of 43 percent of US offshore oil capacity and 38 percent of its natural gas output, according to forecasters at Weather Insight.

CHINA - Scientists in China have created genetically modified cattle designed to produce tastier beef. For chefs and food-lovers, the perfect steak has long been the holy grail. Now scientists in China have joined the search, by creating genetically modified cattle which they say are designed to produce tastier beef. Jing Qin 1 and 2 are clones given an extra gene which has been found to increase the amount of fat in their muscles. When they are slaughtered, this will mean richly marbled cuts of beef – as tender, the scientists hope, as Japan's famous wagyu beef.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a new European Union Treaty but is facing lukewarm interest from her EU partners, the weekly Der Spiegel reported. "The federal government would like to further European integration," it said in its issue to be published Monday, adding that Merkel advocated a meeting of heads of state and government "to set a new legal basis for the EU." Der Spiegel said [Mrs] Merkel's European affairs advisor Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut led talks on the topic in Brussels and that a date for the meeting is expected to be set at an EU summit due in December. For several months, [Mrs] Merkel has stressed the need for "more Europe" to meet the challenges posed by the euro crisis.

UK - Unmanned police drones, comparable to those used in war zones such as Afghanistan, could soon be secretly watching over the streets of UK cities, according to a National Police Air Service director. The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being considered to monitor crowded events in Britain, such as concerts and festivals, as soon as the aerial units become cost-effective. Some police precincts have tried using the remote-controlled system to curb crime. Now the idea is to implement the drone policy nationwide. Earlier this month, The Mail reported that UAVs will be used to scoop out terrorists, smugglers and illegal immigrants along Britain's shores as part of the EU wide project.

USA - Nineteen people were shot in seven attacks overnight in Chicago, as the US city's gun violence epidemic continued. Thirteen of the victims were shot within a half-hour period, including eight in a drive-by shooting on a single street. Chicago officials have been battling a sharp increase in shootings and homicides, with some elected officials arguing gangs do not fear the police. By this time in 2011, 270 people had been killed in the city, according to data complied by the local newspaper RedEye Chicago. In 2012, that number is 348.

UNITED NATIONS - As Syrians continue to be slaughtered, the UN is once again too busy condemning Israel to respond to those pleading for help in Aleppo and elsewhere. The world body’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the principal organ under the UN Charter tasked with addressing human rights and fundamental freedoms, has just concluded its annual session by turning a blind eye to the ongoing massacres by the Assad regime. Instead, a list of all its resolutions for the entire world shows that ECOSOC condemned only one single country: Israel. Two resolutions were adopted against Israel, and one report.

HUNGARY - Hungary's opposition far-right Jobbik party called on Saturday for zero tolerance against what it called Roma crime and parasitism, and said any member of the large minority who did not conform should leave the country. Tensions between the 500,000 to 700,000 impoverished Roma and other Hungarians in the country of 10 million have risen at a time when Hungary is mired in its second recession in four years and unemployment is stuck in double figures. "We need to roll back these hundreds of thousands of Roma outlaws. We must show zero tolerance towards Roma crime and parasitism," Jobbik chairman Gabor Vona told a rally of several hundred people in Heroes' Square in central Budapest.

USA - Maybe President Barack Obama should just settle it in a gun duel with a Texas judge, instead of calling on the United Nations to invade the state. The United Nations scoffed on Friday at claims by a judge in Lubbock County, Texas, that UN troops could invade the southern US state to settle a possible civil war, which the judge warned could be sparked if [Mr] Obama is re-elected in November. "It's absolutely ridiculous," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, when asked if the United Nations had any plans to invade Texas. He later added: "No one, not even the United Nations, would ever mess with Texas."

ITALY - Times are now so tough that Valerio Novelli, a ticket inspector on Rome's buses, is planning to sell his old gold teeth. "I can't get to the end of the month without running up debts," said Novelli, 56, who has to support an ex-wife and daughter. "I know I won't get much, but I need the money." In a country suffering from economic crisis, buying gold off desperate people has become one of the few boom industries. City centers are being transformed as traditional shops go out of business, their signs replaced by ones that announce "Compro Oro", or "I Buy Gold".

USA - For the past five years, the US government has paid fuel companies billions of dollars in subsidies to buy home-grown, corn-based ethanol, making it a viable part of the nation's gasoline supply. Now you would have to pay them not to buy it. The worst drought in half a century revived a fierce food versus fuel debate. Livestock and food producers and others are calling on President Barack Obama to abandon - at least temporarily - a government mandate that requires converting more than a third of the US corn crop to ethanol. The president has three months to decide.

USA - Do you ever worry that what you post on Facebook could get you involuntarily committed to a mental institution? Well, that is exactly what happened to one military vet recently. A former Marine named Brandon Raub was hauled off to a mental institution because of what he posted on his Facebook page!

EUROPE - French philosopher André Glucksmann finds the situation in Europe "extremely unsettling." In a Spiegel interview, he discusses the failure of European intellectuals, how divisions could lead to an EU breakup or even hostilities, and why pursuing a United States of Europe is "the wrong goal."

GERMANY - Criticism of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has always been shrill in Germany. Now Gertrud Höhler, a confidante of Merkel's political mentor, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, has upped the ante with a new book claiming that Merkel is obsessed with power, ruining the euro and installing an "autocratic regime."

SYRIA - CIA spies have smuggled up to 14 Stinger missiles into Syria so rebels can defend themselves from air strikes. The ground-to-air weapons have been delivered across the Turkish border to the Free Syrian Army and were partly paid for by Saudi Arabia, a security source claimed. President Bashar al-Assad’s MIG-23 warplanes and helicopter gunships have killed more than 1,000 people.